Andrea Poli: Starting a new chapter at Inter

Andrea Poli is now an Inter player. The midfielder, with Giovanni Branchini and his agents, met with technical director Marco Branca and sporting director Piero Ausilio in the Nerazzurri headquarters in Galleria Vittorio Emanuele II yesterday to complete the loan deal from Sampdoria with the option to buy in 2012. The Italian born midfielder is Inter’s 5th first team signing this summer and has been brought in to strengthen the central midfield position.

21 year old Poli was born 29 September 1989 in Vittorio Veneto in Italy, he started his career in Serie B with Treviso. In the January transfer window of 2007 he was signed in a co-ownership deal with Sampdoria but stayed on loan with Treviso until the end of the season. He made his Serie A debut with Sampdoria in a 0-3 loss against Cagliari on the 4th November 2007, he spent that season in the Sampdoria Primavera squad that won the Campionato Primavera. The following season saw him loaned out to Serie B side Sassuolo in order for him to gain a bit more first team experience. He returned to Sampdoria for the 2009/10 season that saw him become a key player in the squad that finished the season in 4th place, gaining Champions league qualification only to see the team relegated from Serie A just a year later, and now he starts a new chapter on loan again but this time returning to Serie A as part of the new look Inter squad. Time will tell how he will do with the Nerazzurri, but if he impresses there is the option of Inter making the move permanent next summer.

Andrea Poli has long been considered one of the brightest prospects for Italian football and I believe training and playing with the level of players at Inter will have a fantastic effect on his development, which in turn should give him the extra exposure needed to break in to the national squad. His national team experience so far consists of 15 goals in 36 appearances since 2006 split betwwen Italy U-17, U-18, U-19, U-20 & U-21 and has as yet has no caps for the Italian national squad, though as I saidif he performs well during this loan with Inter it’ll not only lead to a perminent contract with the Nerazzurri but will only be a matter of time before he’s playing alongside teammates Pazzini & Ranocchia for the Azzurri.

As for his club career so far he’s made a total of 98 appearances for his various clubs scoring just 5 goals ( all of which were during his spell at Sassuolo, Serie B) which doesn’t sound particularly exciting but when you consider he’s only 21 and he’s a midfielder then it seems fairly irrelevent that he’s scored so few goals

Andrea Poli on joining Inter

“I really am very happy. It’s a great honour for me to wear this shirt and I’ll do everything in my power to deserve it. This is a fantastic opportunity for me,”

These were Poli’s first words as an Inter player when interviewed on the Inter channel

“There are terrific players here at Inter and I’ll be trying to learn as much as I can from them. I can’t wait to get down to work and I’ll do so with determination and give it everything I’ve got,”

The interviewer then went on to ask about his role to which he confirmeded that he’l be playing a central midfield position and is comfortable as a defensive player or attacking which will be useful to our set up this season especially with Gasperini’s tactics. Poli was then reminded of a match between Sampdoria and Inter in the 2009/10 season. It was one of his first matches as first choice and Inter lost:

“We won 1-0, I remember it … Samp played very well against a great Inter side, with Mourinho as coach, who went on to win the treble. I remember it was a thrilling game.”

As he left the Inter headquarters he was immediately surrounded by Interista, who he told

“This is a great dream coming true for me, Firstly I’d like to thank all of the fans who have come here today to welcome me, I promise them I’ll do my best here. I can’t wait to meet up with my new team-mates and to start working with them and with my new coach. He’s a terrific coach and he created quite a few problems for us when he was in Genova…. I’m really pleased he’ll be training me and I can’t wait to meet him for the first session.”

Poli admitted that amongst all the great players at Inter the one he wants to model himself against is the Captain himself Javier Zanetti

“He’s a model player for everyone. Zanetti is a great professional and a magnificent player.”

He is especially looking forward to teaming up with his former teammate and good friend Giampaolo Pazzini, we will have to wait a few weeks to see Poli in action as he picked up a slight muscular problem during the Coppa Italia match between Sampdoria and Alessandria but when he does get on the pitch for the Nerazzurri he will give his all to prove that he is worthy to wear our great shirt and I believe this move could be exactly what his career needs to push him to be one of the great Italian midfielders like Pirlo and De Rossi (though obviously playing for a better club 🙂 )